White colored problem
by Plastic Turdlord
Summary: 1 year after the memorable Zone raid, Judy has dealt with what she saw back then. But when the unwelcomed sneaky fox has reminded her of the past, without actually trying, she has nothing to do but to involve herself into the whole new Zone exploring


My house has a great veranda. When I'm out of thing to do, I usually sit there, facing the dawn, and just do some little work, for the sake of my paws being busy. It can help to distract myself from bad things and thoughts.

This is something that brings me the real relief, peace and quiet. I never think about something concrete: all of my thoughts usually turn into the water.

It was a pretty cool day today. I was cutting out some strange symbol on my bone knife, when a gate in my small fence opened and someone approached to my house.

I got instantly angered and curious. The mammal – turns out to be a fox – wasn't really tall, was wearing something similar to ZIC uniform. I don't bring anyone to Zone with and don't sell my shit to random guys. Everyone here knew about it, which could mean that either this fox was mistaken, or came here to ask about my map copies. Now this is something I almost never against, but, uh, usually they don't bring any profit to the buyers. At least I don't know about if they do. So when the stranger approached to me, I was already frustrated. I bet he's gonna ruin my evening and his life. And all because of some stupid idea that he gave birth to.

My inner feeling just launched the analyzing of the stranger's look. He looked a bit goofy, but confident in himself, green eyes and a strange silence. But I was the house owner – after all, he came here, which means he's the one who's gonna ask. I was staring at him, not changing my expression, but, eventually, I got sick of it.

– Judy Hopps? – he asked. – I need to go to the Zone, as fast as possible.

Well, that's new. I didn't even say anything, and he's already completed his mission with a «when are we going?» look. It cracked me so much, that all of my frustration was gone without a trace. He could gather a lot of audience and earned Humorist Of The Year award, if only here were these young stalkers, tourists, and other by passers. I go there alone. And that's the reason why am I still alive. Well, since that day… hey, snap out of it, angry bun! It's not time yet.

– Greetings, – I said as much politely as I could, while hiding my sarcasm. – I guess you not only picked the wrong house, but the wrong street as well.

He nodded, realizing it's too late to say hello, and looked at me with the most curious glance I've ever seen.

– The fastest way to go to the Zone, – I continued with sweet voice, – is to rent a chopper, and they're only available in military airport, 30 miles away from here. So you need to go to the Triple Crossroad and catch a taxi. Maybe it could even drive you to there – talk to the driver, give him some money for rice vodka.

He looked at me carefully, clearly seeing that I'm kidding. And then he pulled out a bunch of money out of his pocket – it was quite a lot.

– I'm gonna pay, – he proposed. – I need to go to the Zone, but not where you say, but where I want to.

He looked so serious that I got nervous: maybe he's just insane? Or not a mammal at all? I heard about this already: something comes out of the Zone and wanders around with casual look.

I stood up, while not noticing the money on purpose, and pulled the knife back in holster. The fox was still looking at me.

– Whoever told you about my help, is a liar, – my sweetness was gone. – I'm not a Zone guide and I'm not a stalker either. I've got a lot of foes that want to fuck me in jail.

– I wasn't speaking to anyone since I came here. Just listen to me and do what you want.

He was obviously lying, but there was something in him that forced me to go back, offer him a chair, and finally listen to all the nonsense, he probably was preparing for weeks.

So here's the story: aside from stalkers that look for money, power and ladies in their clubs after they get everything mentioned before, there was a group of animals that was investigating the Zone, without even touching the borders.

– You see, the Zone, aside from material appearance, has much more complicated structure, that's not even considered by the science. And animals with high sensitivity and purposely trained ones, felt the tragedy on the reactor before it ever happened.

– Oracles, or? – I asked skeptically.

– We don't really like being called that, sorry, – he shortly answered and I relaxed, realizing, that this psycho isn't dangerous. I'm gonna sit and listen, because why shouldn't I hear a cool story?

So, a group of animals with a high sensitivity of the world around they were exploring the Zone from far away, on the mental level. And made so much success that they called themselves adepts of the Zone, no less than veteran stalkers (I caught myself on thinking that I actually don't mind his company anymore). Everything went as should be, but they had losses, too. Someone went nuts, someone left, not being able to sustain the pressure anymore (alcohol is the best cure), and even two lethal outcomes.

This was getting interesting. Some tiger, according to his words, who attempted to approach the Zone, perfectly described the symptoms of «brain bitch slapping».

But the worst thing happened six months ago. Something strange showed up: creepy, intelligent, and aggressive. Four animals were sent to a therapist after that, and the corpse of one more guy was found in the inside-locked room, with a throat, bitten with something slobbery and toothy.

And now I was completely hooked into the story. The fox was a good storyteller and genuinely believed in everything he said.

The most skilled adepts gathered all they could and tried to perform «mental Zone invasion» and discovered a lot of new things, especially that their enemy has a material body. It wasn't born in Zone, but nobody knows where it came from. What could a bunch of freaks fear, when they saw nothing scarier than a cockroach? They send their agent to seek and destroy the creature.

– So, what happened next? – I was legitimately curious about the story, but I tried to keep that in secret.

– He died, – the fox shortly answered and got silent.

– And they sent you? – I remembered my doubts and found my question funny. I imagine how someone like him comes here and hires random people to do the job, who happen to be marauders that will eventually clip him and wait for the next guy to arrive.

– I'm the seventh one, – he said with a tired voice. – And I'm the last hope of our community, or maybe, everyone else's. I don't really like to brag though.

I won't say I got shocked. But I was definitely surprised. Looks like my expression blew my cover and he continued telling the story. According to him, they only hired one stalker, while observing him from the distance.

– Name, – I said calmly.

– Nick Wilde – the fox answered, expecting the question.

That creature living in the Zone was getting stronger and more aggressive and started to mess with the heads of «mind stalkers». They kept their resistance as they could, but there were more and more losses. They tried to leave the beast alone, but they started to notice its appearance in heads of other animals, that don't have anything to do with neither Zone nor the group. Destroying it has become the primary object.

– If I fail, we're out of time completely. They're covering me right now, but slowly going insane, – he finally finished. He looked like he was going to cry

– Hey, don't you weep, – I told him. – Your massive insanity isn't something new: it gets cured. You just say: how did you find me?

He hesitated, but continued:

– I know, it's hard to believe, but I gotta tell you the most strange thing. It's not a fake – everything happened as I saw.

He took a deep breath:

– I had a dream two weeks ago. Like I'm in the forest, and I see a guy near me. He was fat and he was wearing a police uniform. He looked at me and said that he knows a stalker that can help us all. He said, where to go, said your name and advised to hurry. The dream was so real, and we give a credit to them. I told this to everyone when I woke up and we decided to try. And now I'm here, seeing that it's true.

I was thinking about saying goodbye to my sad guest, because all of this just appeared to me as straight out lie, when he suddenly added:

– And he said that I should say hello from the Donut and tell that the world around us isn't what it seems to be. I know, it sounds stupid, but it wa…

I wasn't listening anymore. My thoughts just turned into the tornado that was awakening every single memory about that day, a year ago. What he just said was impossible. Even if this sneaky bastard turned into a princess fairy I would be less surprised. Like really: what does ne NOT know? Nobody even knew about the nickname I gave to the Donut. I thought that nothing special happened back then, that my daily routing was just messing with me, but the ceramic pistol, lying in my container was proving me wrong. In the end I just took this all for granted, but here it is, reminding me of its existence. Nick didn't even know what he just said and what impact his words did to me

But if so, then there's not chance in hell I'm going there. It's dangerous even without it, and with these conditions– this is straight suicide.

– So you believed me? – this dummy was surprised.

– I did, but I can't escort you there, – I thought that this day will be in my head forever

Looks like he realized my intentions:

– But what about the others… They die and go insane…

– I'm not gonna die for someone else's idiocy.

– But why even die? I only ask you to escort me to the place where I can feel this beast. And then you can leave me.

– I'm not gonna go with some idiot wanting to die. – I tried not to meet eyes with him

– Why do you keep saying so? I go there to fight! I'm not planning to come back. It's much better than meet the white walls.

Ignoring the absurdity of his words, there was some logic and I hesitated. He was intriguing me with the tales of a mysterious world, he mentioned someone, who couldn't be anywhere except that place, he wanted nothing, other than the possibility of getting to that place, and, for the first time in my life I didn't feel any danger with Nick around. I had to think about it.

– It's late now – I said to Nick. – You can spend the night here. We'll take care of it tomorrow.

– What about you? – he got worried.

– If I will escort you, then you have to follow my orders. Get used to it

– Yeah, and the last question…

– Go on.

– Can I call you Carrots? It's much simpler for me and you're pretty cute for a Zone visitor.

At first, I wanted to punch him in face for that request, but he had a point. It was really cute.

– Alright, I'll allow that, as long as it's not in stereotypical or suggestive manner.


End file.
